I would advise for players to visit this thread first:

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=26575984#post26575984

So that they may understand Riot’s position on supports that offer sustain.

Supports have been getting nerfed. This is not a theory, or a speculation, it is a fact. Supports are the most difficult champs to create, because they have to remain reasonably well scaled into late game without gold AND exp. Unfortunately, these high base ratios on their abilities/base stats, make it so that support becomes a beast if utilized outside of their intended roles (Lulu, Janna, Soraka, etc). This brings on the nerf bat.

So now, more aggressive play supports are being utilized (Blitzcrank, Leona, Alistar, Taric, etc.) in order to counter some of the downfalls of the nerfed supports. This is, without a doubt, what Riot has intended, aggressive kill lanes that diminish stagnant gameplay, and encourage high risk, high reward behavior.

This means that the traditional role of support is evolving. Supports are no longer the standby idly whilst my AD carry farms supports. Now supports are expected to be aggressive, looking for the opportunity to give that advantage to their teammate and secure that kill in their lane.

A support in the current meta usually has any of the following set of parameters:

  • Sustain, be it either for themselves, or being able to heal/give mana to teammates.
  • A hard form (or two or three) of CC in order to engage a fight.
  • 1 or 2 abilities that benefit a team fight

 

The thread alludes that there will be 2 supports per year made at Riot. Yet the issue being that with the above mentioned parameters, most champions should at least be tried in the current meta as unconventional supports, and we should not wait for Riot to create some “traditional” ones.

We have already seen an influx of Leona, Taric, Blitzcrank, and Alistar in the competitive level. And while it is true that Soraka and Janna continuously see gameplay, maybe what’s needed is more experimentation with the choosing of our support champs. This also encourages to have the other team counterpick against that unconventional champion, not realizing that it’s actually the support.

Champions like:

  • Karthus (we care about his wall, period. But his global ult contributes in a teamfight, and his lay waste is an excellent harass tool.)
  • Amumu (a reverse blitzcrank, that stuns, reduces MR, and brings a great team disabling ult)
  • Cho’Gath (Silence, hard-to-hit knockup, innate tankiness)
  • Ganplank (Lane steroid, global-not so spectacular-ult, sustain)
  • NIdalee (sustain, awesome poke range, trap-wards, lacks CC)
  • Caitlyin (Believe it or not, this champion is great as a support! Long poke and harass, decent utility in her traps, a slow, an ult that can annoy the enemy team)

 

Remember that while all these champions scale better if farmed, or grabbing those late game items, it’s their utility we are searching for.  These champions won’t be as powerful as their traditional roles were intended, but you just might surprise the enemy team with an unconventional support (Supportsticks anyone?).

These are only some examples, about how viewing champions in a different light, can yield some great supports. There are many more champions (99 to be exact, soon to be 100), but I cannot give you all the pros and cons about them as supports in this article. Instead, I encourage you to go experiment with them, in different team comps, and break that meta.